While traveling, you may use different types of maps. If traveling within a city, you would probably not use an Atlas, but rather you would use a smaller city map. If traveling from state to state, you may use a combination of city and state maps and even refer to an Atlas from time to time. Search engines also vary. If you are in a particular web site, you may find a search tool. This site search tool will normally only return results for pages within that particular web site (just like using a city map when traveling locally). Don’t confuse site search tools with Internet search engines. Internet search engines are specific sites dedicated to searching the entire Internet (like an Atlas map), not just a small area.
Basic Elements of a Useful Internet Search Engine
The Internet has many different search engines. Some well-known search engines that you might be familiar with are:
Google
Yahoo
Ask Jeeves
Lycos
Excite
Alta Vista
Though extremely popular, these are not the only search engine sites available by far.
What makes one search engine better than another? This is hard to say since it usually comes down to a user’s personal preference. Each search engine may have a slightly different layout (as they try to appeal to the widest audience possible), but at a bare minimum, it should have:
Simple Search Field: On the home page of each Internet search engine, the first thing that should catch your eye is a big empty search field. The most popular search engine sites use this design because they realize this is the main reason most visitors come to their site. It makes it easy for the user to locate the starting point for their search without having to dig through the page to find the proper search field. Since this is a simple search field, you just type in your key words. You don’t have to worry about proper capitalization or commas. Then, press the search (or find) button (the title for the button will vary from search engine to search engine) to get your results.